Guest Book

Hello all! I have not posted in a while. Thought I'd share my thoughts about the tour so far. I turned 40 on July 16. In celebration of that ominous milestone my friend Dennis and I decided to drive across the country and spend a week following the Allman Bros. from the Gorge in Washington State to Red Rocks, CO and all shows in between. We drove 46 hours straight from Warwick, NY to The Gorge stopping for 2 hours in Deadwood, SD for a steak dinner. We arrived at the Gorge 2 hours before the show. I still can't believe we actually pulled this off. I had never been to the Gorge before but I had seen pictures. The pictures do not do it justice. This is by far the most beautiful concert venue I have ever seen a show at. It actually blows Red Rocks away and I never thought I'd say that. We were treated to a double bill of the Dead and the Allmans and had high expectations. They were met. What totally surprised me was how tight the Allmans were even though they had not played a show since the Beacon in March. In my opinion they blew the Dead off the stage. I particularly enjoyed Dreams and the Layla encore. The first Dead set was ripping too with a frenetic version of Casey Jones to close while the sun set over the Gorge. From Washington we headed back East to Big Sky for the 4th of July show. Coming up to Big Sky was surreal. There was no traffic 2 hours before showtime. People at the gas station a half mile away did'nt even know there was a show. We were afraid we either got the wrong date or the show was cancelled. Finally found the show. There was probably only 1500 people there when we came in on John Fogarty's set. Never saw Fogarty before. He did about a 2 hr. set of CCR tunes and then the lightning/hail storm broke loose. (cont)